Woo guys - 100 review mark right there! Thanks a million to the bunch of you! I was soooo scared that the sequel to my beloved Far From Perfection would not shape up, but glad that you appear to be loving reading it as much as I am loving writing it! Sorry that it's up a few days after reaching the big 1-0-0... I've just started my new job and had to say a very sad goodbye to one of my best friends, trying to spend as much time together as possible! Nonetheless, it got here eventually!

So, we learn more about Kyle with our new chapter. As a visual aid, I wanted to try and choose a person/celeb that you'd be able to find pictures on to envision. The problem is that Kyle is a culmination of like three of my guy friends physically, personality-wise and in regard to his dialogue. Anyway, as a cliche, I just thought what the heck, let's go with the name thing. So, Nic Westaway is who you can imagine as Kyle. However, if you too are a Home and Away fan, my Kyle really, really couldn't be further from Kyle Braxton (i.e. He would be more of a Chris than a Kyle).

Enjoy! :) xo

Chapter Ten – Flesh and Blood

Will's POV:

"Kyle? What are you doing here?" I question, as I walk over to the man who is barely two years older than me.

I haven't seen Kyle Hartley in years and years.

I had first met Kyle, Bella's older brother, when I was 18 and not long after we met each other's families not long after Bella and I had gotten together for the first time.

Even from way back then, I can remember it being a real task to try and find a time to meet when Kyle would be home, between his interstate and more local trips here, there and everywhere. For as long as I have known the guy, he would barely stay at one place for more than three days at a time.

However, over the years his travel paths extended to overseas and I would only ever see him during times of the year that called for obligatory Hartley family dinners, or else when Bella and I would happen to be in the same country as Kyle during our own far less frequent travels.

"I'm guessing that my dear sister forgot to tell you about me dropping by? I just got off the airport shuttle bus" he pauses to gesture towards the bus stop that is located on the other side of the park in our street which is in sight from where we stand. "She's picking me up from here at any minute when she drops Allie off for you."

I nod at Kyle's explanation, before he seems to get carried away on another train of thought... A train of thought that I don't especially find so preferential now, or ever.

"I can't believe how many years it's been since I've caught up with you! I didn't quite know whether I should give you a handshake or whether I should have knocked you out for knocking up my little sister!"

I make the decision not to comment on the statement. While I have a clear answer and preference on it, I feel as though the statement is very much a hypothetical. Instead, I note the confusion on my housemate's face beside me. I assume that the puzzlement is over the unexpected meeting with the person who I am familiar with, since Rikki did not appear to have the same recognition.

"I'm guessing that you haven't met Bella's brother before? Rikki, this is Kyle."

Kyle joins in to my introduction of the two, adding a remark that makes me realize that despite the fact that I have not seen Kyle Hartley in almost five years, he is still very much the same guy. The fact that I haven't seen him since before Bella and I had broken up years ago did not change anything.

"We obviously haven't met before, Will. She wouldn't forget me if she had met me."

Kyle's cocky, smirk-riddled remark only holds my attention momentarily before I hear a car coming down the road. Given the off-peak time of day and the two visitors I am expecting shortly and any minute now, the car catches my attention.

With a glance behind me, I recognize Bella's little silver car coming up our road, a sight I have seen a hundred times before. However, today, it didn't take a genius to notice that Bella managed to get both herself and Allie out of the car about three times quicker than normal as I watch my girlfriend and daughter hurry over to the guy standing between Rikki and myself.

"Uncle Kyle!" Allie exclaims as she hurries over and gives her uncle's legs a cuddle, the only thing she is able to reach from her height. It doesn't take long at all for her to lose interest, moving towards me as she threw her arms up in the air as a signal for me to pick her up.

Meanwhile, a step or two behind Allie, Bella latches onto her brother the second that our daughter moves away from him, the two siblings hold onto each other in a tight squeeze for far longer than what Allie had.

I know that Bella has always had a close relationship with her brother since they were young, being forced to be each other's best friends when their lives were constantly being uprooted and shifted to every corner of the world. It is a connection that I had always thought I had been able to relate to, until my own sister that I had used to be so close to started to drift apart from me as I reached adulthood.

"Sorry Will, I think that I completely forgot to mention that Kyle would be hanging here until I dropped Allie off. It was quite a last minute arrangement."

"Will?! Sorry Will?! I was the one stuck with being hassled by him" Rikki pipes up before I even have a chance to reply or get a word in edge-ways. Honestly though, I really can not tell if she is mucking around with Bella (as Rikki does) or if she genuinely has it out for and dislikes Bella's brother.

Regardless, Bella laughs at the comment as though she doesn't even consider it being anything other than sarcastic, before I alter the discussion and move on.

"Don't worry about it, Bells. It's been good to see him again after so many years."

"Yeah, it's been yonks since I've caught up with Will-ski over here. It's been like what... four? Five years? Allie, how old are you, sweetheart?" Kyle says, adding to Bella and I's conversation, as well as incorporating my obliviously innocent daughter to how her age will impact on Kyle's question.

"I'm four!" Allie quickly and enthusiastically responds like she has been waiting for the question as she accidentally holds up three fingers instead of four to indicate her age.

At the same time as Allie answers Kyle, Bella lays a slap to her brother's shoulder as he concludes his uncertainty after Allie's response of her age.

"So yeah, I haven't seen you in almost five years in that case then."

"Kyle! Subtle!" Bella hisses unhappily to her brother who shrugged off his far from discrete calculations of how long has passed since Kyle and I have caught up, along with how long since Bella and I broke up based off of Allie's conception.

"And with that, we will be going" Bella adds before she says her goodbyes to our daughter, who she is routinely leaving under my care for the next few days.

After handing me Allie's kindy backpack and a few other bits and pieces I will need which I either don't already have for her or that go where Allie goes and whichever parent she is with, Bella and Kyle begin to move towards the car. This doesn't last long before the female of the two stops in her tracks, turns around and comes back towards myself, Rikki and Allie.

"Screw this. Allie knows about us so I don't even know who the hell we are even unnecessarily tiptoeing around?!" Bella says to me in a low whisper. We are out of hearing range of the others as she nears me with a spring in her step, before she bounces on her tip-toes to enable her to reach my lips suddenly.

It takes a moment to adjust what is happening when one second she is talking and the next second we are kissing, but needless to say, there are no complaints coming from me.

This is the very first, very public appearance we have made since rekindling our former relationship.

The only other acknowledgement we have made to other people since hooking up again is the discussion we had with our daughter, trying to explain it to Allie who didn't quite catch the concept. Her reaction had consisted almost entirely of neutral, confused and repeated 'why's'.

In the background, I can hear Rikki's exclamations and surprise at the very sudden public display of affection, given that as far as she and our other friends knew, we haven't been dating each once again.

"Oh don't tell me that you seriously didn't see that one coming?!" Kyle pipes up knowingly.

Bella ends the kiss, pausing a moment after we pull away to give me a sweet smile and a stroke to my cheek before answering back to her brother.

"Yeah Kyle, you 'saw that one coming' because I told you... You know that we're back together!"

Kyle begins to debate his sister and babble on about not needing to be told to know and all that pointless bantering and debating that he is good at, but I tune out the second that Bella looks back to me.

"I'm thinking about taking Kyle further up the coast and away for a few days. You know, take him on a few sightseeing things and to a few touristy places since I have no idea how long he will or won't be sticking around for. I just thought that I'd warn you that if you can't get in contact with me, I might be out of range or something like that, depending where we end up."

"No worries" I reply, pressing a kiss to Bella's cheek before she continues towards again, and actually gets back into her car this time.

Next thing, Bella and Kyle are speeding off together while Allie, Rikki and myself are left to make our way back into our share house.

"So how come Bella's brother is down?" Rikki asks as we all subconsciously walked back into the living area where Zane is crunching numbers into his laptop and Tam is sitting in front of the TV, hoeing into an assortment of perfectly cut carrot and celery sticks.

"I have no idea. She mentioned it recently when I was over just after she and Allie had Skype-d him that Kyle was possibly going to be in Australia for a while since his VISA and funds were getting low, but I didn't know where or when or how long that meant" I explain to Rikki as Allie flees from my arms to watch whatever Tam is watching with her, something which I probably should be monitoring as her parent.

Rikki nods at the explanation before her face scrunches up in confusion.

"His VISA? Where has he been?"

Acting as yet another daily reminder that kids are sponges, absorbing and hearing way more than what you realize they do, Allie bellows out from the lounge, obviously listening in to both the television program as well as our conversation.

"Uncle Kyle's been in Africa! He sent me a letter with a lion hat and I got it from my letterbox!"

"Yeah, I think he was doing a bit of South Africa, then a couple of other places like Kenya and Madagascar" I add to my daughter's exclamation and input into the conversation, in order to answer Rikki's question more fully.

Rikki acknowledges my clarification with a nod, before she moves across the room and slots herself on Zane's lap where he is seated at the dining table, working with just as much fixation on his computer and his work as he had been when we entered the room. I wonder if he even noticed that all of us had returned inside before Rikki made herself comfortable on him.

"Did you hear that you missed out on meeting Bella's brother? It sounds like he's staying with her for a while."

"Well if he's staying with her for a while, then chances are that I probably will end up meeting him at some point or another" Zane replies, failing to look up or react to anything other than the question as he remains intent on typing away on the laptop and sounding anything but interested in hearing about Kyle.

Rikki rolls her eyes, removing herself from her self-appointed seat on Zane's lap and gestures for me to follow her over to the lounges. I sit down next to Allie on the couch she is sharing with Tam as the two watch the TV program together, while across from our seat, Rikki is doing a surprisingly really good job at taking up the entire other couch with her petite body.

"Did I hear that Bella's brother is staying with her at the moment?" Tam questions seconds after her sister and I settle in our spots nearby her on the lounge.

"Yeah, but who knows how long that will be for. Could a week, it could be six months. No one probably knows."

As if it is as simple as flicking a switch, Tam's attention falls from being absorbed by the television, but aware of what we were talking about, to being completely absorbed by our discussion.

"Ooh. What's he like?!"

"He's great fun. Besides the fact that he might have changed in the half a decade since I've really caught up with him, he's a larrikin. I don't know if Bella's ever introduced her parents to you, but he and Bella are almost exactly like their dad, Paul."

"Sounding good... Is he single?"

One of Rikki's latest taunts and teases towards Tam is attempting to convince her that she is going to die alone as a single, crazy cat woman. That has also been prompting the eighteen year old's even more recent 'hubby hunt' to get a head start on being able to counteract and avoid her recent fears that Rikki has instilled in her. It is all Rikki's fault that the poor kid doesn't realize she still has pretty much her whole life ahead of her yet.

"As far as I know he is, but he'd also be pretty close to 10 years older than you, Tam."

"No skin off my nose. I can deal with an age difference... But he's not gay, right?"

I laugh at the question that is made to sound almost normal while Tam is researching a potential entrant and delegate, undoubtedly for her 'hubby hunt'.

"Trust me. From what I know Kyle Hartley is certainly not gay."

"Well, well, well... Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a winner!"

Later in the day, lying on our stomachs and sprawled out across the floor of my bedroom in the space between my double bed and Allie's butterfly-quilted trundle, my daughter and I rest on our elbows as we play with her dolls together.

Currently, I am the puppeteer of the two male dolls she has (Allie has named them 'daddy' and 'uncle Zane'), while she juggles between her control of manipulating about 10 of her other girl dolls, that she too had so originally named. Just to name a few, there is 'Aunty Tam', 'Aunty Cleo', 'Aunty Rikki', 'Mummy', 'Kayla from Kindy', 'Peppa Pig' 'Nanna' and 'Grandma' in her collection.

... Bella and I really need to teach our kid a few lessons in originality.

At the present moment, Allie is playing with 'Nanna' and 'Aunty Cleo' while she itches and scratches a spot on one of her arms and another spot on her other shoulder. She has done it a few times already, but I didn't take any note of it, nor did I feel as though I had any reason to react to it until I realize just how many times she has done it solely in the space of time that we have been playing together.

"Allie? Can you let daddy see your arm, please?"

My little girl nods, compliantly holding her arm out towards me, revealing the red, slightly swollen and erratically patterned rash on her arm.

"Is that hurting you, sweetie?"

Again, she gives me another nod. "But it's okay daddy. Playing with my dollies stops my brain thinking it hurts."

I press a kiss to her little arm that is still in my hand from the examination I conducted a few moments ago as I make a mental note to ask Bella if she has noticed any rashes on Allie recently.

"Is your shoulder sore like your arm is, Allie?"

Allie nods and as if on cue, she starts to scratch the top of her shoulder once again.

Frowning, I sit up from my spot on the floor where I have been playing and acting out the dolls lives according to Allie's wishes and demands.

"Come here please, sweetheart" I say, gesturing for her to sit on my lap. I do this partly because I know that it will interrupt the doll roleplay and partly because then I am able to nurse my daughter and check for any other noticeable ailments to accompany the rash that I don't think has been there for long.

Cooperatively and without another word, Allie gets up and makes herself comfortable from her seat on my lap, nestling her head into my arm and chest tiredly. That is another cause for concern. Not only does my generally energetic child seem far sleepier than she should for this time of day, but I also know she is very much Bella's daughter. Just as with her mother, I am not used to Allie being quiet for very long or not babbling on about whatever she was doing at whatever time of day it is. Generally too, playing dolls is her time to shine and let her imaginative and conversational skills take over.

Rocking Allie in my arms, I start to feel her forehead which is way hotter than I can ever recall Allie's, or anyone's skin feeling. She feels far hotter than what seems to be normal for anyone

"Bubba, do you feel really hot?"

Another wordless nod, so I start to feel a few other parts of her body to see how her body temperature compares on places like her foot, her arm and the top of her chest just below her neck as I try to identify whether she is running a fever or if she has a temperature. However, the odd part is that the rest of her feels completely icy and cold in comparison to her head.

It is worrying to say the least.

Not knowing quite what to do for your child is a frightening sensation that I haven't felt before... In our circumstances, the situation is especially complex when your daughter is a mermaid and being sick isn't quite as simple as making an appointment with the doctor or local GP. Instead, I pull my phone out and call the first person who comes to mind and who needs to know, also being the first person who may be able to help me out with what to do or what not do.

"Bella? I really hope that you and Kyle haven't left the coast yet..."

So what is everyone's take on Kyle Hartley? Love him? Hate him? Looking forward to more about him or wish he never came? Glad Bella and Will are going public now? Also, what is up with poor little Allie?

112 reviews to the next chapter guys!

Next chapter: Cleo and Lewis muster up the courage to share their news with their friends and family.